Elementary School Archives

Zachary Brewer

April 15, 2016

Zachary Brewer is a private tutor specializing in elementary and middle school math, writing for all ages, and technology. With over 15 years of experience in education, he brings a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to tutoring that helps students connect core academic skills to creative, real-world applications. Zach is also a coder and curriculum designer with a growing focus on generative AI. He is currently developing instructional materials on prompt engineering and exploring how to teach students to use AI tools for research, creative work, and strategic planning.

Zach currently teaches 4th grade math at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy II, a role that blends his passion for rigorous academics with his commitment to educational equity. Prior to this, he served for over a decade as the Educational Technology Specialist at Corlears School, an independent elementary school in New York City. There, he designed and implemented a comprehensive PreK–5 technology curriculum that integrated digital literacy and creative problem-solving into every subject. His students explored math by programming interactive art, studied science through animation projects, and developed writing and storytelling skills by producing their own short films.

Earlier in his career, Zach worked as a math enrichment teacher at P.S. 85 in the Bronx, where he created Math Art, a visual, project-based curriculum for grades 2–4. The activities in Math Art helped students build fluency with key math concepts while also nurturing creativity and confidence. Zach later self-published the curriculum as a book, which has sold over 6,000 copies and is used by teachers around the country.

Outside the classroom, Zach enjoys hiking and camping, photography, and playing 1960s and ’70s pop songs on the piano.

Bill Army

October 10, 2015

Bill Army made his professional theatrical debut at the age of nineteen. After graduating from Middlebury College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre, Bill matriculated to the Tisch Graduate Acting Program at New York University obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. At Tisch, he had the opportunity to work with Tony-Award and Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Playwright and Screenwriter, Tony Kushner on the world premiere of his play, Henry Box Brown directed by Mark Wing Davey.

Bill has performed in several successful and critically-acclaimed plays musicals, and revues. On Broadway, he has originated roles in Relatively Speaking three one-act plays written by Ethan Coen, Elaine May, and Woody Allen, directed by John Turturro, Act One at Lincoln Center Theater written and directed by James Lapine. and The Band’s Visit (Winner of Ten Tony Awards including “Best New Musical,” The Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album,” and the Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program”) written by Itamar Moses, David Yazbek, and directed by David Cromer. Off-Broadway, he has performed with The Public Theater, The Atlantic Theater Company, Red Bull Theater, and in the hit revue Old Jews Telling Jokes at the Westside Theater directed by Marc Bruni. Bill was a company member of the Off-off Broadway company the Potomac Theatre Project for eighteen years, performing most notably in Lunch by Steven Berkoff, Scenes from an Execution, No End of Blame, and The Europeans by Howard Barker and Vinegar Tom by Caryl Churchill. Regionally, Bill has worked with The Westport Country Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Olney Theater Center, and The National Players. His Film/TV credits include appearances in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Deadbeat,” and the web series “COHAB.”

In 2022, Bill founded the nonprofit site-specific theatre company, Sketchbook Theatre, Inc whose mission is to break conventional perceptions and expectations of what it means to experience live performance, while serving a wide range of communities. In 2023, he produced the inaugural season of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at a townhouse space on the Upper West Side called, The Lethe Lounge and at Tydeman Farm in Germantown, New York.

In addition to Acting and Producing, Bill has emceed the 2013 Drama Desk Awards, Broadway in Bryant Park, and the Manhattan Theatre Club Gala. He has written and adapted plays and musicals, the book of his original musical “The Family Business” was selected as a Semi-Finalist for the National Music Theater Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Bill has taught Text and Musical Theatre at the LaGuardia High School for the performing Arts, where he has co-directed three shows. He has also taught acting and directed at Middlebury College. In addition to his classroom teaching work at LaGuardia, Bill also works with students as a private acting/audition coach.

Matthew Serra

August 29, 2015

Matthew Serra

Matthew Serra is a private tutor, former Spanish teacher, ethnomusicologist, audio engineer, and flamenco guitarist. Matthew currently resides in Sevilla, Spain, where he studies flamenco guitar at Artes Escénicas Rebollar, a premier flamenco academy. He holds a Master of Arts in Music from Durham University, from which he graduated with distinction, and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Pittsburgh. Matthew also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Music and Spanish (summa cum laude, Allegheny College), and Music Technology (City College, CUNY). Matthew has carried out research projects on the relationship between flamenco performers’ identity and personal style, flamenco’s cultural/musical/literary heritage, and the effects of specific reinforcement schema on target language use and motivation in the foreign language classroom.

Matthew loves the opportunity to work directly with students of all ages and levels. He is enthusiastic about using the tutoring relationship as a medium for helping students to become the versions of themselves they most want to be. Matthew is experienced in teaching Spanish, English, executive function coaching (organizational and study skills), test preparation, creative writing, and even guitar, but he is also passionate about teaching math, science, language arts, and elementary education. Matthew has also worked with students on the autism spectrum as a therapeutic staff support and volunteered in a children’s grief support group. Matthew believes that learning can be fun, teaching should be engaging, and every subject has significance. He is an incredibly creative and engaging teacher who loves to teach through both traditional and immersive methods.

In his free time, Matthew enjoys studying flamenco, composing music, listening to psychology podcasts, reading in Spanish and French, and spending time outdoors.

Emily Andrews

August 26, 2015

Emily Andrews is an Early Childhood Learning Specialist.

She works as an independent consultant at a variety of private preschools as well as working one-on-one with children and families as a private tutor and parent coach.

She visits children in their homes and in their classrooms to observe, play, and make suggestions to their teachers and parents regarding how best to support their developing learning skills.

Emily has worked at a variety of early childhood settings in New York City for over ten years and has had a variety of roles ranging from a classroom teacher, a SEIT, a program director, and a consultant. She has unique program development experience having helped launch both an afters chool program and an inclusion preschool and has insights as to what skills a child may need to strengthen in order to thrive in a variety of educational settings.

Emily received a dual Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education from Bank Street College in 2007. In 2010, Emily was honored to be selected as one of 12 individuals for Bank Street’s Autism Annotation program, a U.S. federal fellowship that focused on deepening one’s preparation to work with student’s on the autism spectrum. Emily is passionate about supporting all children’s learning and classroom readiness skills, including: attention, executive functioning, social cognition, and most importantly CONFIDENCE. She believes that children acquire these skills most successfully when they are introduced through individualized play techniques that draw upon the child’s true interests and strengths.

Emily is also a parent to a lively and charming two year old girl!

Nicole DeMartino

July 20, 2015

Nicole DeMartino wanted to become a teacher since she was a child and gets to live out her dreams every day as a classroom teacher at PS 172 in Brooklyn, a model inclusion school, where she joined the faculty in 2013. In additional to her full time work with the NYC DOE, Nicole is also a part-time Director and Curriculum and Instruction Specialist with My Learning Springboard. She previously taught at the Parkside School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She received her B.A. at the University of Miami in 2009, with a double major in elementary education and Spanish language, and continued her education at NYU, earning her Master’s degree in Childhood Special Education.

Nicole DeMartino has experience teaching and tutoring a diverse group of students from many backgrounds and with varying abilities. In Miami, she completed her student teaching experience in a 2nd grade general education classroom and assumed all roles and responsibilities of the classroom teacher. While studying at NYU, Nicole did her student teaching in a 1st grade CTT classroom at P.S. 261 in Brooklyn and in a 5th grade self-contained classroom at The Parkside School on the Upper West Side. After developing a strong, positive relationship with Parkside, Nicole was offered a full-time teaching position as a 2nd grade teacher. She believes that all students learn differently and, therefore, she uses a variety of materials, methodologies, and targeted support to differentiate her instruction.

In her free time, Nicole enjoys traveling, reading, cooking, seeing movies, and spending time with family and friends in NYC and on Long Island.

Bill Army

Matthew Serra

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